Many electronic devices in today's market need ways to uniquely identify themselves to other electronic devices with which it must communicate. Such devices typically identify themselves using information that is unique to that particular device, such as a Medium Access Control (“MAC”) address. Such identifying information is typically stored in a memory, such as a flash memory, when the device is constructed. In practice, the identifying information is written to the flash memory during manufacturing, after which the portion of the memory storing the identifying information is subsequently locked such that it cannot be changed after it is installed in the device. This provides a high level of confidence that the operation is correct and can be tested. This also means that these sectors are not changeable, thereby preventing any post-manufacturing customization or adjustments to the identifying information of the flash memory.
However, there are users of such devices that wish to implement changes to the identifying information after receiving it from a manufacturer. This is particularly true with respect to devices such as set-top boxes, which are owned by service providers but distributed to customers, as the service provider may wish to adjust this identifying information to include other information suitable for its market. Unfortunately, under the current system of storing identifying information to flash memory, allowing such changes would compromise the security of the information that is supposed to be “locked” in the memory.